| General Information |
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| Distribution | About 65 species, primarily in tropical and subtropical Americas, Asia, and Africa.
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Habit
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Herbs or subshrubs, annual or perennial; stems erect or clambering-straggling.
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Leaves
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Leaves alternate, petiolate; blade mostly lanceolate, ovate, or deltate.
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Flowers
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Inflorescences terminal and often axillary spikes or panicles, often fasciated in cultivated forms, many-flowered. Flowers bisexual; tepals 3-5, distinct, membranous or scarious, usually glabrous; filaments connate basally into cups; anthers 4-locular; pseudostaminodes absent; ovules 3-many; style persistent, 0.2-4 mm; stigmas 2-3, capitate or subulate.
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Fruit
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Utricles ovoid, membranaceous, dehiscence centrally circumscissile. Seeds (2-)3-many, black, flattened.
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Seeds
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Seeds (2-)3-many, black, flattened.
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Chromosomes
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x = 9
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Contributor
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David Lorence
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